WTN: In Pursuit of Blech!

[David M. Bueker]

2011 Domaine de la Côte Pinot Noir Estate Sta. Rita Hills - USA, California, Central Coast, Sta. Rita Hills (5/28/2015)
Served blind during an eclectic Pinot Noir tasting, this wine showed a very candied, overripe cherry fruit aromatic that was combined on the palate with a strange pine/herb/mint element on the palate that's jarring in the juxtaposition to the extremely ripe and alcoholic fruit. Some at the table found the wine downright unpleasant. I thought it was drinkable, but not something I would spend money on. Imagine my shock when it was revealed as a wine from the patron saint of IPOB. Yet another case of the emperor having no clothes, only this time not the emperor one was expecting.

The pine/herb/mint element sounds like eucalyptus. It puts a character into wine that I nicknamed "Sonoma stink".

-Paul W.

[David M. Bueker]

It certainly didn't show as eucalyptus, but I can see how it could read that way.